


The Crowning of the Year

by HawkMoth



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Coda, Episode: 2011 Xmas The Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe, Gen, Written in Decemeber 2011
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-13
Updated: 2013-05-13
Packaged: 2017-12-11 19:19:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/802261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HawkMoth/pseuds/HawkMoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christmas should be made of magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Crowning of the Year

******

There is no need to hesitate at the threshold. One step will lead him inside. But the Doctor stands by the bright blue door, taking a deep breath, almost afraid to move. He just needs a moment.

He doesn't need to go further to know the house is lovingly decorated. Festive and welcoming and warm. Two years for Amy and Rory to make it a home where they are comfortable and safe. They knew he wasn't dead and they waited, setting a place for a wayward friend, the eccentric relative, the family secret.

How long would they have waited?

(Forever.)

What if he had chosen to return at any other time besides Christmas?

(His place would still be waiting. Amy would still pout and fume and refuse to hug him until it became just too ridiculous.)

His face is wet (not only from Amy's water pistol) and it's just as magical as a forest in winter, as amazing as Madge crowned with gold and holding tree-souls in her head, as astounding as the beacon of love and faith that guided Reg Arwell back home.

(The same beacon has led him here, back to his own family.)

In that moment he knows Madge was right to scold him. The Arwells will have their best Christmas ever (more thanks to Madge than his own well-intended shenanigans. He might have to go back and do something about all those alterations to the house...)

That's a thought for later. Amy and Rory are waiting, so for now he closes the door and blots his face on his sleeve. He doesn't quite dare to think that there's _another_ place set at the table, to make this reunion even better than Madge could have hoped for him.

Then he hears a familiar call of "What sort of time do you call this, then?" from behind his smiling in-laws.

And Christmas is complete.

******

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from my favorite Advent carol, "People, Look East."


End file.
